The semi-weekly fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1887-11-18
How to Make Cider Vinegar.

Vinegar can easily be made from many
different substances, but in country
abounding in apples there is no excuse
for making it for domestic use from any
thing but the best. Pure cider vinegar
is easily though not rapidly made by the
natural process, and when thus made is
healthful and free from all the objections
attached to the manufactured article,
and never disappoints the houskeeper
by degenerating to insipidity or eating
up her pickles by extreme acldity. When
made in large quantities from the OF
chard the making begins as soon as
enough apples have fallen to furnish a
supply. These are ground in the cider
mill. as for cider, and may be pressed at
once, but a better way is to keep the
pomace in large watts or casks until it has
become quite sour, when the cider is
pressed out and again put into watts or
casks to remain until we'll settled, when
the clear liquor is dram off into barrels
not quite full These barrels ought to
be kept in the sun covered with boards
for protection to the barrels until cold
weather sets in, when the barrels are re-
moved to the vinegar-hOuse, which
should have a stove to keep it warm in
the winter and hasten the process.
The barrels ought to be iron-hooped
and well painted, as it is desirable,
though not indispensable, to expose
them to the SUN in the warm autumn
days, and for large operators q vinegar
house that can be warmed artifcially is
desirable. Many, however, keep their
sour cider in cellars or barns until
spring, when it is again exposed to the
sun and q circulation of ali, for a cellar
is not a good place for making vinegar.
The bunghOles should be kept covered
with pieces of mosquito net or other
material that Will keep ont the flies.
The bungs must not be put in except
temporarily for at least q year, and
where the barrels are in a position that
does not require frequent moving 1T is
better to keep the bungs open for
much longer time, as the vinegar will
continue to grow strong if exposed to
the air until two or three years old.
The loss by evaporation and leakage
Is from one fourth to third of the whole
quantity, but as q compensation pure
cider vinegar two and three years old
will bear an addition of rain water,
sometimes equal to the loss and still be
strong enough to meet all requirements.
Indeed, the dilutiOn with water is gen
orally necessary to some degree, as IN
many cases the old vineyards too acid to
be agreeable, and the cider in the first
stage of making is often slow in turning
TO the acid state on account OF an excess
Of saccharine matter, which is corrected
by a proper addition of soft water. The
natural process may be fastened by oc-
easionally turning the cider out of one
barrel into another, exposing 1T more
fully to the air, also by the addition OF
q gallon of strong vinegar or little
mother to each barrel. Sometimes trick
ling it down through beech chips or
shavings is practised for a more rapid
making, but people who have large
orchards and make large quantities
never resort to any of the questionable
methods sometimes used by manufac-
turers for making what they call cider
vinegar quickly, but are content to wait
on the natural process and find their
compensation in the higher value placed
On their products by their customers
Ae1o York World.